Bob,

It may be little late to reply to this thread and you may already have this information but here goes.

I have copy of C. Fox Smith's book 'Songs and Chanties' published in 1919 which has a poem called 'Homeward' p. 216.

I think this should settle the question of authorship.

HOMEWARD

Behind a trench in Flanders the sun was dropping low
With tramp and creak and jingle I heard the gunteams go
But something seemed to set me a dreaming as I lay
Of my own old Hampshire village at the quiet end of day

Home, lad, home, all among the corn and clover
Home, lad, home, when the time for work is over
Oh, there's rest for horse and man when the longest day is done
And they go home together at the setting of the sun!

Brown thatch with gardens blooming with lily and with rose
The river flowing past them, so quiet as it goes
Wide fields of oats and barley and the elder flower like foam
And the sky gold with sunset, and the horses going home

Old Captain, Prince and Blossom, I see them all so plain
With tasseled ear-caps nodding all along the leafy lane
There's a bird somewhere calling and, the swallows flying low
And the lads sitting sideways, and singing as they go.

Well gone is many a lad now, and many a horse gone too,
Of all the lads and horses in those old fields I knew;
There's Dick fell at Cuinchy and Prince beside the guns
On the red road to glory, a mile or two from Mons!

Dead lads and shadowy horses -- I see them just the same,
I see them and I know them, and name them each by name,
Going down to shining waters when all the West's aglow
And the lads sitting sideways and singing as they go.

Home, lad, home...with the sunlight on their faces
Home lad, home to the quiet happy places!
There's rest for horse and man when the hardest fight is done,
And they go home together at the setting of the sun!


I hope you find this useful.

Griff Bowles

griffbowles@sympatico.ca